The knight snorted.
“Innocentis not the word I'd choose,” Niel said. “She tried to smuggle warriors in to kill me and my men. Even the knight we captured admitted as much.”
“There’s an Enarian knight?” Ayla’s eyes widened. She hadn’t noticed men guarding any of the other doors, though she had not walked a full round of the castle.
“I expect next you’ll be telling me to thank whoever tried to poison me.”
His eyes were sharp on hers, nearly accusing.He must think I wanted Isalde to bring in the men, still. Even after the fight we had, he still thinks it.
“I know what she did,” Ayla said, trying to make her voice that soothing caress that sometimes worked on Ditmar, when he was only annoyed and not furious. “She should not have led theminside, when it’s your castle now. But she is young. Are you the same man now as you were at fourteen?”
His whole body tensed, hands gripping his utensils so tight the stem of the fork bent. Her breathing turned shallow as a storm passed over the knight’s face, then vanished.
“No,” he said, the word practically a growl. “And nor do I expect her to have any allegiance to me. But you cannot think I will simply let her walk freely through the castle, when she has proven the strength of her loyalty to the other side.”
“Is she to spend the whole siege in the linen closet, then?”
“Unless you know where the castle keys are.” He bent over his plate and sawed at the goat, tension still filling his broad shoulders.
Luck and Mercy, he wasn’t going to kill Isalde. She felt her shoulders soften as the strain ebbed from her.
“Let her go, then.” She whispered the plea, her hands tight on her lap.
“To wander the castle? No.”
“Outside,” Ayla said. “Let her go, outside the walls. She can’t possibly make a difference to them if she’s outside the castle. She’s not a valuable hostage. She isn’t going to help run the kitchens from a closet. And it’s one less mouth to feed.”
“She could give them information. How many of us there are, for one.”
“Would that matter?”
“Drink,” the knight commanded, and she realized she hadn’t tasted the wine yet. With a sigh Ayla reached forward for her goblet, and let the wine burn down her throat. His eyes were on her as he lifted his own and drank. He set the cup down firmly. “You want me to risk opening the gates on behalf of a girl who tried to get my men and me killed. Who wanted to seeyoureturned tohim.”
“I know you don’t trust me…”
“Why? Should I?” He leaned forward across the table towards her. “I’m nothing but a traitor to you. You’d as soon as see me dead, wouldn’t you, lady?”
Well. That wasn’t true, not anymore. But the events of the morning loomed in her mind; the knight covered in blood and bellowing accusations with rage in every line of his body.
It didn’t matter if he had reasons to war against the crown. It didn’t matter if he’d sworn her an oath; he’d break it, just like the oaths he’d broken to the Queen. He wasn’t to be trusted.
“I will not pretend to hate my country,” Ayla told him quietly. “But I do not want this siege to end. I should be perfectly happy for it to drag on for years.” Even if she already missed the freedom of the mountains. Missed the feeling of the wind on her face as she and Gemshorn raced through the hills of Blackfell.
“We do not have years. They tell me we lost a month or more of time today, because of what thatgirldid.”
“The spoiled food.”
“Yes, the spoiled food. The siege won’t hold forever, Lady Blackfell. We count our time in months, not years.”
Her chest tightened.
“Then send them all out. The servants,” Ayla suggested quietly.
If Niel expelled all the servants at once, alongside Isalde, it might look as though the servants remained loyal to Ditmar and Enar. That they were all as much a threat as the girl had been.
The thought of losing Sarella and Megh, of being trapped alone in the castle, was intolerable. But with fewer mouths, the siege would last longer. She wouldn’t be forced back under Ditmar’s thumb.
And they had families of their own. They never should have stayed behind for her. Ayla did not want to lose their company, but if the timing would make them look loyal in Ditmar’s eyes,then the only other reasons she could think to keep them were selfish ones.
